Hello everyone,

Here's the third installment of my beginner's guide to Total Annihilation. It will contain two parts, Dominating the Battle, and The Final Assault. Enjoy.

Dominating the Battle

So, you've gained control of all the land around your base as suggested in the last article. Now what? Easy. It's time to put yourself in the position of attacking the enemy with base-busting units while limiting his ability to attack your own base in return.

So, how is this accomplished? There's a couple of things you'll need to do.

Burn all his outlying Metal Extrators to the ground

Killing the outlying mexxes can be accomplished in a number of ways. The faster the better.

• Nothing chews up perimeter Metal Extractors faster than gunships. They've got the speed, the power and enough armor for those random encounters with enemy AA. With an Advanced Air Construction unit laying radar towers within the enemy territory, it's pretty convenient to grab the first three to four Rapiers out of your plant and start queuing up attacks on mini-map radar signatures.
• A few cheap Raiders are also pretty easy to micromanage around the enemy dots that show up on your Advanced Radar. Although this is cost effective, it's slower than using gunships and allows the enemy more time to dispatch a supression squad. Your call.

Although the Zipper and Freaker are fast, their costs do not justify their performance. It doesn't take long to remove enemy metal expansion once you can see the radar signatures. It's more practical to use cheap Level 1 Raiders or quick gunships, which have a later use other than as expensive fodder.

Kill as much of his radar in your territory as possible

If he can't see where your units are going to come from, he won't be able to properly coordinate a skirmish in your territory. With his radar destroyed, he also won't be effectively attacking your base, as you will be able to intercept him well in advance with the right units. I recommend regular air patrols covering as much of your territory as possible.

Build firebases outside of his base

A few medium plasma artilleries and some AA in the right place can force your opponent to choose alternate routes to get into your territory, which gives you more reaction time. As well, adding factories to these fire bases allows you to keep up much more pressure. The faster and more often your units attack his perimeter, the more he has to spend on defense, both in the time spent in micromanagment and in resources. This is a significant advantage in the case of slower-moving Level 2 units. From this point, upgrading your fire base to include an Intimidator or Bertha isn't such a bad idea. You have the units to defend it and you also know exactly where the enemy is, so scouting for the juicy targets is easy.

The Final Assault

OK, now you've hammered the enemy back into his base, cut off half his economy and are knocking on his front door with your skirmishers. But ya' just can't seem to get past those medium plasma cannons, missile turret forrests and fortified lasers.

As Core, you have it easier for this part (and considering that you had it hard to get to this point, it's your reward).

Core's Best Base-Busting Choices on the Ground

Goliath: The mighty Goliath not only builds fast (think quick replacements and larger numbers), but a platoon can walk through almost any static base defence. Add in the rest of your skirmishers, and it's almost as easy as issuing a move command to the center of the enemy's base.

Morty: Good range, excellent accuracy, medium damage and high rate of ballistic fire makes the Morty a nightmare to deal with when protected by Slashers. Not only is forticification ineffective, but attacking such a Slasher-backed group is hard to do. You can't get close because the Slashers chew you up, and you can't fight from afar because the Morty out-ranges almost all your units and can fire over wreckage.

Diplomat: The finesse first-strike weapon against unmoving targets. The Diplomat doesn't miss stationary targets, does incredible damage and has a ballistic weapon that is unaffected by all but the highest terrain, let alone fortifications. When the enemy is waiting by his fortified lasers with skirmishers, a group of jammed Diplomats can quickly remove the laser to minimize casualties in your assault.

Notes:

• Pillager: Practically worthless. With its horrible accuracy, mediocre range, low damage potential and weak armor, I give this (and the equivalent Arm unit, the Lugar), Orion's "King of the Fodder" award.
• Reaper: While not a bad unit, the Reaper is still a bad choice when you have the Goliath in the same factory. The Goliath builds faster, has better armor, does more damage, shoots farther and faster and also sports an awesome area-of-effect exploding shell. The choice should be pretty simple.

Arm's Best Base Busting Choices on the Ground

Bulldog: Although nowhere near the power of the faster-building Goilath, just remember that Arm usually has a resource advantage from its early raids. Two dozen Bulldogs can chew a hole in base defenses within seconds, allowing the powerful Arm skirmishers, like the Maverick, to run in and hurt you bad.

Merl: See the above section on the Diplomat, as the units are almost identical.

Notes:

• Lugar: Before you invest in the Lugar, read my above statemens on the Pillager. Take my word for it, or learn the hard way when you play someone good.
• Penetrator: This unit is in a class all of its own. Horrible turret speed, an insane armor/cost ratio, and a huge build time make this unit a poor choice for a factory that could be cranking out Bulldogs or Panthers. Top it off with a super explosion when destroyed, and this is the last thing you should be using as battlefield support.

Well, that's it for this week. I had hoped to add in the Level 2 air war, but that is a huge topic. Expect to see the next article entirely devoted to it.

Until next time,

-- Orion

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